Animal Collective's Deakin Offers Apology To Kickstarter Donors

Nearly two years after raising nearly $26,000 through crowdsourcing site Kickstarter, Animal Collective multi-instrumentalist Deakin has apologized to fans for failing to deliver the many incentives promised to his project's donors.

Speaking to Pitchfork, Deakin — real name Josh Dibbs — reveals that, instead of funding his trip to Mali to perform at Festival in the Desert, all of the funds were instead donated to the TEMEDT charity. Additionally, Dibbs admits that, because of his own unorthodox creative process, the art and music supposed to emerge from the project are still works in process.

In a statement released to the project's donors, Dibbs wrote, "I am sure it seems inexplicable to some of you that that has taken nearly three years. On a personal level I have been coming to terms with my own creative process and some of that has been to accept that things take a long time to work through me."

Dibbs' need for long periods of time to work through artistic rough patches should come as no surprise to Animal Collective fans; after the release of 2007's Strawberry Jam, Dibbs announced his was taking an indefinite hiatus from the experimental pop group for "personal reasons."

While Dibbs' statements offer no definitive deadlines for Kickstarter benefactors, hopefully they are enough to silence the project's critics for some time. Read the entirety of Dibbs' message to fans over at Pitchfork.